Find out the factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis.

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Introduction

TITLE: MEASURING PONDWEED PHOTOSYNTHESIS PLANNING: AIM: The aim of this coursework is to find out the factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis. INTRODUCTION: Photosynthesis is the process of making food by plants to produce glucose and oxygen. The equation for photosynthesis is as follows- SUNLIGHT CARBON DIOXIDE + WATER GLUCOSE+ OXYGEN CHLOROPHYLL In this process Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Water (H2O) react together with the help of Sunlight and Chlorophyll to form Glucose and Oxygen. Photosynthesis is affected by four main factors. They are as follows- 1. Carbon Dioxide Concentration (CO2): RATE OF CON The enzyme Carboxylase has active sites on it. CENTRA- TION ACTIVE SITE CO2 CAN FIT INTO THE ACTIVE SITE (CO2) In a plant leaf there is a fixed amount of Carboxylase enzymes. This enzyme allows (C02) to fit into its active site. As the (CO2) rises the active sites all fill up and the rate of photosynthesis levels off. This chemical called Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate provides green pond weed with CO2. 2. Sunlight: Chlorophyll traps sunlight There are a fixed number of chlorophyll molecules in a leaf. ...read more.

Middle

Repeat for another 5 minutes. Repeat all results in a table. 5. Repeat stage 4 again with the light bulb 5cms away from the beaker. 6. Repeat stage 4 once again with the lamp 10cms away from the beaker. APPARATUS: 1. Beaker containing water 2. Sodium Carbonate powder 3. Spatula 4. Pondweed 5. Paper clips 6. Light bulb PREDICTION: I predict that if the lamp is closer to the beaker then more bubbles will come out, but when the lamp is a little far from the beaker, then less bubbles will come out from the beaker. VARIABLES: 1. LIGHT WAVELENGTH 2. CARBON DIOXIDE 3. WATER FAIR TEST: To ensure that the experiment is a fair test, the following things need to be carried out- 1. The same pondweed must be used every time we change the light distance. 2. Repeat the experiment 4 times to make it more accurate. 3. The main variable source is the distance of the lamp from the beaker. 4. Perform the experiment at the same temperature. 5. Note down the results after every 5 minutes. ...read more.

Conclusion

The effects of being late are that the results obtained might not be accurate. Therefore before doing any experiment one should schedule the timings of their investigation. The second problem that we faced was setting the apparatus. To cut the pondweed from the end is quite tricky and that is where we got stuck. The reason behind this is that if we cut the wrong end of the pondweed, then the whole experiment might be useless since that would not be the right way to perform it. In order to set up the right apparatus one should note down the stages that he/she are going to perform in the experiment so that fewer mistakes are made. The last problem that I faced during the investigation was timing the experiment accurately. This was mainly because of human error. Although we used a stop watch to measure our results, we were always late at stopping the watch exactly at 5 minutes. To improve this error, the experiment should be repeated as many times as possible so that we are sure of out results being accurate. If time had permitted we could have done it more then 4 times to make sure that the data collected is accurate. NAME- PRATEEK BHANDARI CLASS- 11C GROUP- BLUE ...read more.

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